Hickory trees combine beauty and functionality

With oil prices high, more and more people are turning to wood heat. If you're one, and you happen to reach for a log from your woodpile that feels like it's made of concrete, you're in luck.

LEE REICH

With oil prices high, more and more people are turning to wood heat. If you're one, and you happen to reach for a log from your woodpile that feels like it's made of concrete, you're in luck.

It's hickory, one of our heavier native woods. At just over 50 pounds per cubic foot, it doesn't compare in weight with ebony, at 73 pounds per cubic foot, but it is denser than the maples, oaks and other hardwoods of our northern forests.

Few homeowners plant hickories, yet there's no reason that we, as gardeners, cannot appreciate these trees as part of the landscape. And not just as part of the general backdrop greenery. The fall color of hickory leaves is a rich yellow, toasted even warmer with hints of brown.

And for the next few months, there's hickory's interesting bark to consider. Besides white birches, hickories are the easiest trees to identify in winter.

Shagbark hickory (Carya ovata) is well named, for the long strips of bark with ends curling away from the trunk do give it a truly shaggy appearance. Shellbark hickory (C. laciniosa) has a similar though less rumpled look.

Shellbark hickory is a lowland tree and shagbark hickory is an upland tree, but if you want to easily tell these two beauties apart, wait until their branches are again clothed in leaves, then count the leaflets. Shellbark hickory usually has seven leaflets per leaf; shagbark has five leaflets, with little hairs at the tips of the teeth.

So with its regal, upright form, fall color and interesting shaggy bark, why haven't you seen hickory trees for sale at nurseries? Because they can be difficult to transplant. In its first season, a seedling hickory typically sends a taproot 2 to 3 feet deep into the soil.

A hickory tree, whether wild or cultivated, offers more than just good looks. In autumn, the four-part husks open up like a child's toy to release pale brown nuts, each about the size of an acorn and with a sharp point at one end. Inside is a richly flavored, delectable nutmeat — no wonder, since hickory is closely related to pecan.

Although a hard nut to crack, hickory nuts are relished by both humans and animals, especially squirrels.

Finally, there's always the wood to consider from this multipurpose tree. Hickory wood is tough and shock resistant, so has been used for ax and hammer handles, golf club shafts and drumsticks. And, of course, hickory makes excellent firewood. Those concrete-like logs give off as much or more heat than any other native wood around — 27 million BTUs per cord.

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